“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
- Maya Angelou
You get yourself a Wattpad account and do your dirty work. You're either a writer at heart or a kid bitten by the book collecting craze phase and have amassed 40 romance novels (by hook or by crook—meaning you buy them no matter if they're dog-eared or brand new as long as your collection is complete) worth a fortune by your standards. Now you want to know HOW do THEY DO IT?
There are many ways to start writing stories, but of course, if you are into Wattpad, you want everything perfect. Or else, the effort won't be worth the trouble of getting all those 40 pocketbooks together. You want to tell a story with your own personal flair, your soul, your signature...or what creative writing teachers say, your own voice. Or what comparative literature teachers say, your own register. You want to make something you love and share it with all your friends on Wattpad who also have the same 40 books you have (but want more).
The best advice will be, make a commitment to FINISH what you have in mind. Don't be a ficklewuss and stop if you don't feel the story is going anywhere or if it isn't the cool thing to do anymore. If you want to write stories, you must finish whatever you start.
Know the basics too. Start the story with a structure in mind. Beginning. Middle. End. Check your collection for how your favorite writers do it. After enjoying the story for story's sake, go back to that favorite book and study how all the parts come together. How scenes shift and how characters move on and behave in the story from start to finish. That shows you PARTLY how its done. The other part is now you as a writer doing it your own way.
Wear a hat. Get yourself in the mood. What you do should be a celebration. Your first field trip as a kid. Explore your imagination. You're stories are not hiding from you. They are always there waiting for you to live them out on the page as you put them down word for word, scene by scene. Find them.
Your stories are not just what the world has shown you, even when you think the world has shown you everything. The old advice would be: write what you know, but everyone obviously knows more than just what they think they know, or else you wouldn't be writing...making stuff up. Because making stuff up is more real and if you know it to be so, then you certainly know enough to tell your story the way you want it to be told.
Your stories are what you dig out of your heart and soul and what you decide them to be as a tale that lives for you and for your reader. Your stories are your most passionate love, so make every word count. Like a perfect date from the dance with Endymion, you being Sailor Scout Venus, stealing time from Luna like no one's business. You get the idea.
Write a story that you want told again. That friends and younger friends will remember. Like your favorite writers among your offensive collection (40 and counting). Stories that will be shared with glee and secret knowing smiles. To inspire others to hoard 40 of their own books. And write like you too.
